Markets for products of captive fisheries

These days the fish market in Finland contains mostly farmed and imported fish, and that makes the coastal catches of professional fishermen specialty products. This project asked three main questions: How has market globalization affected the price structure of traditional coastal fish species?
How do farmed fish and imported salmon affect the price of wild fish? Where is the price settled – in the local fish wholesale business or on the international market?

The goal of the project

The goal of the project was to study the market for Baltic freshwater fish species in Finland and Sweden. The market for Danish portion-size rainbow trout in Germany was also analysed. Competition between fish species and local price formation were studied with time-series analyses of prices with a co-integration method. How farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), salmon and whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) affected the prices of captive freshwater species was of special interest.

Results

The world market prices of salmonoids were found to have an effect on the prices of white meat species caught in the coastal area. European whitefish is a central species in the Finnish fish market and local markets of whitefish species have integrated. The primary market areas of Southern Finland defined prices in Northern Finland. The markets of Finland and Sweden were observed as being integrated for almost all fish species.